Gold Coast thumps NZ Warriors 30-10
Mathematicians and pundits may have the Gold Coast virtual certainties to make the NRL top eight, but their coach John Cartwright is refusing to look that far ahead.
Despite picking up two points in a 30-10 win over the Warriors at Mt Smart Stadium, Cartwright said talk of finals footy could still derail their season.
"It's never really been about that," Cartwright said.
"I know a lot has been written about it. I think that may have affected us last week (in a 34-18 loss to North Queensland).
"We've put ourselves in too good a position to talk about making the eight. It's a nice feeling, but I don't even know if we're there for sure.
"It's not about that, we've set ourselves up with a really good opportunity and we don't want to waste it."
While the Titans went into this weekend's round in the top four, they had lost three of their last five and Cartwright said he was pleased the signs were there that their best form was returning.
"Our speed was much better than it has been over the past month," he said.
"We had a good win over the Broncos (two weeks ago) and it probably hit a bit at how good we've been going.
"We were in a bit of a flat spot but there was nothing flat today, they're a big strong side and I thought we won the battle in the ruck, created opportunities for our little men and it was the most urgent we've been for a long time."
Warriors coach Ivan Cleary could only sing the praises of the Titans after the 20-point loss.
"You have to give the Gold Coast credit," he said, "When they got down in our end they really controlled it.
"I was happy with the way the guys came back in the second half, but it was one of those games where they did everything right in the first half and we couldn't score."
The Titans took a cautious approach early on with Scott Prince kicking a penalty in the eighth minute.
But then the tries came.
Anthony Laffranchi went in after Nathan Friend drew the defence at dummy half a metre from the line, creating the hole.
The Titans continued to make ground with handy offloads in the tackle and Prince went in for his fifth try of the season in the 21st minute.
Seven minutes into the second half, Warriors winger Manu Vatuvei received a crossfield kick from Stacey Jones, beating David Mead and Jordan Atkins in the air to score the home side's first try.
Jones and Vatuvei combined again in the same manner to give the Warriors their second eight minutes later.
The Titans needed to score next to halt the comeback, and they did through a try from Kevin Gordon, who went in after receiving a ball from Mat Rogers.
Two tries from Rogers in his 50th game for the Titans and a third conversion from Prince wrapped up the scoring over the last 10 minutes.
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